The Branch School receives Tapestry Grant

By: CYNTHIA LESCALLEET

Published 7:00 pm, Thursday, August 25, 2005

The Branch School, a private school in west Houston serving prekindergarten through grade 5, has been awarded a Toyota Tapestry grant.

The award is sponsored by Toyota motor sales and administered by the National Science Teachers Association to reward and fund innovative methods of teaching science in all levels of education. The Branch Schools project bears the title Comparative Wildscape Populat-ion Census and will be the focus of next years science curriculum. Pupils of all grade levels will participate.

Texas leads the nation in both loss of open space to urban development and in certification of backyard wildcapes such as the one on the campus. The Branch Schools project will focus on what happens to the wild animals when their habitat is destroyed. The pupils will learn about habitats, wildlife native to the area and what people can do in their own backyards to help wild animals. Pupils will be placing a camera in their campus wildscape which will be activated by a motion sensor. When an animal comes into the area, a short movie will be recorded and sent to a nearby computer. The fourth- and fifth-grade pupils will then identify the animals and make a profile of the number and type of visitors they get. This will be compared with profiles from the Edith L. Moore Nature Sanctuary (as an example of the natural state) and developed areas such as familys backyards.##M:(full story)##

They will also compare profiles with wildcapes of various sizes. The pupils will then be able to draw conclusions about how effective backyard habitats are at providing homes for displaced animals.

The pupils will also learn about habitat destruction and how to provide replacement homes for the animals.

They will focus on specific homes that can be added to benefit certain species while studying more in depth about that type of animal.

The preschoolers will build a bluebird house. The kindergarten, first- and second-grade classes will build bat houses. The third graders will each sculpt toad houses. The bluebirds and bats will be observed after they move into their new homes by built-in cameras.

The Branch School provides the children with hands-on learning. Concepts behind this project will be incorporated into many areas of the curriculum throughout the year.